An attorney who represented Leigh Corfman, a woman who accused former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, said that two of Moore’s supporters proposed he drop her as a client in exchange for $10,000, according to a new report.
Eddie Sexton, who was representing Corfman, said two of his other clients, Gary Lantrip and Bert Davi, approached him in November and offered to pay him $10,000 and a possible meet-up with then-Breitbart News chief Steve Bannon if he did not continue representing Corfman and if he released a statement to Breitbart News saying he did not believe her allegations.
“After reviewing the allegations, after taking Leigh Corfman as my client, I believe there is not sufficient evidence to back up the allegations and that the case lacks credulity I decided that since I would have difficulty representing a client that I don’t believe I have to recuse myself from this case. I hope the best for Leigh,” said the proposed statement, which Sexton provided to the Washington Post.
The statement was handwritten when provided to Sexton, who claims to not know who wrote it. He was given the statement in front of two Breitbart reporters.
According to phone calls Sexton recorded and provided to the Post, Lantrip referred to the $10,000 payment and indicated the goal was to “cloud” the growing allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore.
Although Moore acknowledged that Lantrip and Davi participated in various campaign events for him, he claims the campaign had not been involved in payments for any statements.
“I nor anyone else in the campaign offered anyone money to say something untrue, nor did I or anyone else authorize someone else to do such a thing,” Moore said in a statement, according to the Post.
A spokesperson added that Lantrip and Davi “did not have any special access to Judge Moore, nor were they ever commissioned with any special tasks by the campaign team.”
Davi claimed he knew Bannon for a long time but said that Bannon did not know about the proposed payment.
“Our effort was really to let the truth come out,” Davi said.
Earlier this week, Davi told the Post he and Lantrip do believe Corfman’s claims now.
“At the end of the day, we came to believe the allegations,” Davi said. “We stepped away from Roy Moore.”
Corfman said Moore initiated sexual contact with her when she was 14 years old at Moore’s home. Her account, along with three other women, was featured in the Post in November. They said the former judge took them on dates and brought them back to his home, despite the fact he was nearly twice their age and they were between the ages of 14 and 18.
Other women later came forward with additional allegations before Moore lost the Alabama special election for the U.S. Senate seat in December.
